Lawyer who helped Guantanamo Bay detainee win payout faces being struck off

A solicitor who helped a British man detained at Guantanamo Bay secure a taxpayer-funded payout faces being struck off for professional misconduct.

Sapna Malik, a partner at Leigh Day,  represented Binyam Mohamed al-Habashi, who spent four years at the US detention centre, in his battle to secure compensation from the British government.

The solicitor, along with Leigh Day founder Martyn Day, faces a seven-week hearing at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, in April, over their role in bringing now-discredited claims that British soldiers abused Iraqis.

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Mohamed, along with Isil suicide bomber Jamal al-Harith, is thought to have been paid up to £1 million as part of a £20 million compensation package agreed by ministers in 2010.

Ms Malik's profile on the Leigh Day website notes: "Recently she achieved a mediated settlement with the government for Binyam Mohamed, the former Guantanamo detainee."

Leigh Day, one of Britain's leading human rights law firms, faces accusations that it failed to hand over evidence and paid improper fees of £75,000 to an Iraqi agent handling alleged victims of British troops.

The firm worked closely with the disgraced lawyer Phil Shiner, who was struck off earlier this month after he was found to have been repeatedly dishonest as he brought cases that British troops had killed, mutilated and tortured Iraqi civilians.

The Leigh Day prosecution follows a £31 million inquiry into claims that British soldiers had tortured and murdered Iraqi detainees in the wake of the Battle of Danny Boy in 2004.

During the Al-Sweady inquiry it emerged that a key, hand-written document, which had the potential to stop the costly legal proceedings in their tracks, had been shredded.

The inquiry found the allegations against British soldiers were baseless and the product of "deliberate and calculated lies" from Iraqi witnesses and detainees driven by a desire to smear the British military.

The document that could have halted the hearing was an English translation of an Arabic record which suggested that some of the Iraqi claimants were members of the Mahdi Army militia rather than innocent civilians caught up in the fire fight.

Mr Day and Ms Malik face allegations before the independent tribunal that they failed to give the key list to the inquiry. They also face allegations that they failed to look after or identify documents for the inquiry.

The firm and lawyers also stand accused of entering into an "improper fee-sharing arrangement" and made £75,000 "prohibited referral fees" to an Iraqi agent, identified only as Z.

Both lawyers deny the allegations. A spokesman said: “Leigh Day will continue to defend itself fully and vigorously against the allegations made against the firm by the SRA when it goes before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal later this year.”